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3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

We are the firepower behind 7th Armoured Brigade - The Desert Rats - equipped with the 105 mm Light Gun, used by the Parachute and Commando Field Artillery Regiments of the British Army.

The Light Gun can be towed by a medium-weight vehicle, or carried around the battlefield under slung by a Puma or Chinook helicopter.

3 RHA Fire Support Teams

Joint Fires Regiment

3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery (3RHA) is a Close Support Artillery Regiment, which has been based in Germany for 17 years but has now moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The Regiment is a modern Joint Fires Regiment equipped with the L118 Light Gun and crucially the Tactical Parties comprising of supporting Fire Support Teams, Targeting Cells and Joint Tactical Air Controllers (JTACs). 3RHA is a part of 1st Artillery Brigade and supports the Adaptable Force of the British Army, meaning there is a huge variety of training, exercises and opportunities across the world.

The Regiment consists of 5 Batteries, C, D, J (Sidi Rezegh), M (Headquarters) Battery and N Battery (The Eagle Troop). The batteries are supported by the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) and small detachments from the Adjutant General Corps (SPS), Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) and the Royal Logistics Corps (RLC).

The batteries of the Regiment have existed since 1st November 1793. The modern Regiment, as we see it today, was formed at Abbassia Barracks, Cairo, on the 27th August 1938 and since that day has played a key role in every operation that Great Britain has been involved in all across the world. More recently The Regiment has served in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo and Cyprus as well as multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

You Tube Video of Light gun in action

Light Gun YouTube video

The Light Gun is used to support infantry and other combat units anywhere on the battlefield. Working with a crew to hit enemy units up to 10 miles away.

3 RHA Batteries

C Battery

“Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been C Battery”. Anon.

Formed at Woolwich, London as C Troop, on 1st November 1793. It fired its guns in anger for the first time at Vinegar Hill, County Wexford in October 1854 at the Battle of Balaclava.

The battery is proud of its uniqueness, is a place where strong teamwork remains key and where willingness to embrace variety and diversity is ever present; it is what has always defined us and will continue to in the future.

D Battery

D Battery RHA was formed as F Troop RHA in 1794 and first saw action as part of Wellington's army in the peninsular. This was followed by playing a crucial role in the battle of Waterloo. It was there that the battery was "hotly engaged in repulsing the attack on Hougement Farm."

J (Sidi Rezegh) Battery

Officially formed up on 4th April 1805 as The Troop Madras Horse Artillery, the battery can trace its origins back to 1756 as the Madres Galloper Guns.

In 1941, during one of Rommel's 8th Afrika Korps Panzer advances, the battery were hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, but the Germans were beaten back by the leadership of Lt Ward Gunn and the BC, Maj Pinney.

Lt Ward Gunn was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, and the battery was awarded the honour title of “Sidi Rezegh”.

M (The Headquarter) Battery

Formed as B Troop, Madras Horse Artillery on 23 January 1809.

Heavily committed throughout the Boer War, The Third Afghan War and WWII; serving in the Sidi Rezegh battles in the Western Desert and Operation Overlord.

In 1958 the battery was placed into suspended animation. in 1977. It reformed as an independent anti-tank battery.

The battery combined with HQ Battery of 3 RHA in 1993 to become M (Headquarter) Battery, providing joint fires support to HQ 7 Armoured Brigade, The Desert Rats.

N (The Eagle Troop) Battery

The battery was formed in India as the 1st Troop Bombay Horse Artillery in the early part of the eighteenth century, and served with distinction on the Indian Sub-continent for over 100 years.

N Battery (The Eagle Troop) commonly known as the Tactical Group Battery is the 4th Tactical Group, which doctrinally support the Brigade Formation Reconnaissance Regiment. They recently deployed as part of J (Sidi Rezegh) Battery, as part of 7 Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery to Afghanistan.